GTA

General Discussion To Gateway To Airguns => Hunting Gate => : PeakChick June 28, 2007, 01:38:41 PM

: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: PeakChick June 28, 2007, 01:38:41 PM

Nasty, cackling, dirty starlings....They chase the song birds off, cackle,fight and make a ruckus all day long......and poop on my truck. They were out this evening, cackling, chasing robins and being the general vile nuisance that they always are.

I heard them in the Spanish olive tree in my back yard. I grabbed the HW30 and a tin of Wolverines, cracked open the back door and had a seat. First one is 25 yards up on a branch......set the parallax, set the scope to about 7x, squeeze and the first one drops to the ground. Second one is cackling at it's partner's demise, hops down to a branch at about 20 yards from my door. Whack, he drops to land on the bench of the picnic table under the tree.

I was going to get a pic for you guys of the vanquished vermin, but as I'm walking around the front of the house several neighbor kids were pointing and commenting on the dead birds in my gloved hand. One of the young boys said , "There sure are a lot of dead birds around."  Hmmmmm.........

Heaved the vermin in the trash.

: RE: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: shadow June 28, 2007, 02:01:23 PM

Fine shootin Stephanie, I was wondering if you hunted some with them babies. Just tell the kid's that the bird's died of  lead  poisoning hehe. Maby some pic's next time. };)  Ed

: Starlings
: 3n00n June 28, 2007, 02:14:08 PM

Good shootingfor you. Smacked a grack with the 52 couple of mornings ago.

Slew a bunch of them over the decades. Kept a limedcompostpile for years just so the gracks and starlings had somewhere to rest. When the pile was about a year into the making, the grass growing on it brought in lots of really cool birds.

Took several more years there with a diana 52to clean up the starlings enoughfor little birds to show upin that area. It was pretty cool when the hummingbirds showed up one spring morning though . . .

: RE: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: Big_Bill June 28, 2007, 02:16:51 PM

Good Going Stephanie,

What a woman ! All those guns, and shoots disorderly vermin also !

That will certainly curtail there disgusting behavior, defecating on your vehicle !

Keep pursuing those despicable untamed ornithoids....:^)

: RE: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: longislandhunter June 28, 2007, 02:21:53 PM

Excellent shooting, enjoyed the details very much.  Nothing I like better than hearing about yellow beaks gettin whacked  ;)

Jeff

: RE: B-26 too
: USNCop June 28, 2007, 03:08:40 PM

Good job Stephanie!  My B26 has been barking here too.  I haven't been keeping count though.  I just double bag them in Walmart bags
and to the garbage can where they belong.
I get a little chuckle at how hard all these pests have been going down,  I just love .22!

: Re: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: Gene_SC June 28, 2007, 04:43:47 PM

Thanks Stephanie, and it looks like we have another hunter on board the GTA..:) Thanks for sharing your vile hunting experience with us  and hope to see many more good hunting tales to come..:)

Gene

: RE: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: dw33 June 30, 2007, 01:24:07 AM

Nice shooting.  Did you tell the kids, "Guess they didn't eat all their vegetables" ?  LOL.

: RE: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: PeakChick June 30, 2007, 01:06:39 PM

There are five of those nasty grackles in my garbage can as we speak. 2260 got her first blood this morning. Grackle was cackling and making noise as I was watering the grass. Silly critter made the mistake of pecking for bugs in my front yard under my maple and pine tree, about 15 yards out my front door. I grabbed the 2260, popped in a CO2 cart. pftt, pfft, got her cleared. I cracked open the front door. The grackle saw me and flitted up into the pine tree. He was sitting on a branch, half hidden from me, shifting back and forth a bit. Well, he popped his head up once too often. An easy 12 yard shot for the 2260 and he crashed to the ground. Verminous avian ended up in a plastic grave in the garbage.

: RE: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: Big_Bill June 30, 2007, 03:06:52 PM

Well doneStephanie !

It would certainly be wonderful to see your trophy and the rifle that removed your problem !

Would you be so kind to provide us with a photograph of your conquests ?

We all would certainly appreciate it...

Thank you so much for thenarrative of your conquest of that offensive egg-laying rodent. :^)

: RE: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: longislandhunter June 30, 2007, 03:25:46 PM

Very nice shooting Stephanie.  Would be great to see some pics of the weapon and the kills.    We just love those pics......    :)

Jeff

: RE: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: dw33 June 30, 2007, 03:42:07 PM

I enjoy reading your stories.  Colorado?  Do you big-game hunt as well?  My uncle and aunt live in a little town on the western slope, called Cedaredge.  Beautiful country.

: RE: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: PeakChick June 30, 2007, 04:07:46 PM

Yes, I live on the front range of Colorado, Colorado Springs. I've lived here 24 years now, I must like it :). Colorado is a pretty scenic place to live.

I don't consider myself a hunter anymore. I did some rabbit, pheasant, deer hunting with my dad in my teens. More than anything else I just loved being out in the forests and fields with my dad.

I am intollerant of vile, damaging varmints though. I don't have a garden, the rabbits and squirrells don't damage anything important to me, so they are safe. But, those darn grackles are another story. They cackle and fight all day long, chase off the pretty song birds, and poop all over everything. It's me or them, and so far I'm winning... :)

: RE: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: dw33 June 30, 2007, 04:46:34 PM

"and so far I'm winning... :)"

LOL.  Keep it up!

: Re: HW30 2, Starlings 0
: June 30, 2007, 05:02:41 PM

Peakchick, I think I'm in love :D

Sounds like you dislike grackles as much as I do. And making friends with the neighborhood kids as much as I am with the neighbors LOL. I shot one grackle and it flew just over the fence and dropped dead at the feet of the neighbor... Good thing they dont like grackles either. No words over the dead grack at all, just like it never happened.

Mark